Tender Persuasion

by Sara Wood

With a grin at his doubtful face, she kicked off her shoes and made her way up. During her marriage to Sebastian she had occasionally evaded their invasive house guests for the peace and quiet of a treetop perch.

  Getting up the tree to the kitten's refuge was no problem: getting it down was another matter. Eventually the spitting, snarling bundle of fluff calmed under her soothing voice, and Jade was able to lift it off the branch without too much bother. But she'd need both hands to clamber down. She undid the top button of her shirt and tucked the kitten firmly into the front of her dress, wondering what Billy would make of that!

  With the furry ball snuggled against her breast, she had nearly reached the ground when an angry voice yelled at her.

  'What the devil are you doing?'

  Her fingers slipped in surprise and she only just managed to hang on, her startled heart thudding unnaturally in surprise. Then her mouth tightened and she continued on, wondering what Dane would make of her long, bare legs, her unbuttoned dress and the kitten jammed against her chest! She reached the lowest branch and swivelled around to jump, checking the distance to the ground.

  Dane moved underneath her, just where she intended to land.

  'Oh, do get out of my way,' she said in exasperation.

  'Jump and I'll catch you,' he said, his face uplifted anxiously.

  A vision of herself landing in his arms and being slid down his body flashed into her head.

  'She doesn't need catching. She's got prizes in getting up trees,' said Billy, defending his idol.

  'No one gets prizes for that,' he said, watching Jade like a hawk.

  Jade glared. The bark on the tree was rough on her thighs and she wanted to jump.

  'I won two packets of Smarties and admittance to Regent's Park Gang,' she yelled. 'I'd offer evidence, but I ate the Smarties and the gang has dispersed. They're probably all prizefighters now. Move away!'

  With a resigned grin, he did so, folding his arms and straddling his legs ready to watch her descent as if he had paid to see a performance. Praying that she'd land gracefully, Jade slid off the branch and was briefly winded by the fall. She was heavier than she'd thought! Dane hadn't moved a muscle. She rose proudly.

  'I thought you were in danger.' he said, capturing her eyes. 'I was all prepared to do my knight-in-shining-armour bit, and you adamantly refused to be a damsel in distress. Your behaviour is very unorthodox, Mrs Kendall.'

  'You,' she remembered, 'nearly made me lose my grip up there…'

  'Looking up at that expanse of leg made me lose my grip down here,' he murmured.

  Jade's face flamed. 'You'd better understand that I don't like people interfering in my life. If I want to climb trees, that's nothing to do with you. So, in future, make sure you mind your own damn business!' she finished with great satisfaction, marching off proudly.

  'My cat!' wailed Billy.

  She flushed and pulled the squirming bundle from her dress, aware that Dane was laughing at her.

  With a deep breath of indignation, she marched off again.

  'Your shoes!' came a chuckling male voice.

  Infuriated, her eyes flashing sparks, high colour in her cheekbones, she took them from him and hurriedly pulled her skirt down.

  'How about a truce?' he called after her retreating figure.

  'I'm waiting!' she yelled back.

  'What for?'

  He'd make a lovely straight man, she thought in satisfaction. 'Hell to freeze over,' she cried, and was disconcerted by his roar of laughter.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  After that, she didn't see him again, and that, of course, was exactly what she wanted. It irritated her, then, to find herself peering out of the window each morning to see if anyone was driving into the manor, and she'd turn at the sound of any vehicle in the village as she walked to and from school. It was difficult concentrating on her gardening too, because so many people were wandering around the grounds. She kept hearing voices—and kept listening for Dane's. It would have been better without Charlie's fence, then she could have given a quick glance and carried on, she thought glumly.

  It really was silly, the way Dane occupied her thoughts so much. Perhaps when she got to know his wife it would be easier to think of him as a married man. He always seemed so unmarried; it was his attitude, of course.

  Her own love-life wasn't going too well. Her relationship with Charlie had foundered; he'd actually given her up, saying that she was too unpredictable for him!

  Gradually the upheaval next door died away, and it became obvious that the work must have been completed. The gossip was that Mr King was in New York, promoting one of his best-selling authors, yet someone had engaged two full-time gardeners and they were already working on the estate.

  The school secretary returned, fully recovered from her illness, and with regret Jade left her job at the little school. Through it, she had not only occupied her mind success-fully, but had also become properly integrated into the village at last. People trusted her.

  Now Jade was left with time on her hands. Knowing she really ought to be working on her book, she rejected the idea because it was too lovely a day. Instead she picked flowers from her garden and took them to the little church. She was decorating the deep Norman window recesses happily, humming to herself, when a child's voice piped up. She didn't bother to look; visitors often came in to admire the church, and there had been six since she arrived. If she paid attention to them all, she'd never finish!

  'Can I put them there? Can I really? Will Granny like that?' said the little boy anxiously.

  'Granny will be delighted,' came Dane's gentle voice.

  Jade froze momentarily, and then continued to arrange lilac, its heavenly fragrance delighting her senses.

  'My flowers aren't as big as that lady's flowers,' said the child tremulously.

  Jade had to look. It was the little boy who'd been dandled on the rosy-cheeked woman's knee at the auction. He was clutching a bunch of cow parsley, buttercups and daisies in his chubby fist.

  'Size isn't important,' said Dane, crouching beside the boy. 'You picked them for her. You chose the ones you liked best. That's very special, if they're picked with love.'

  Jade felt a pricking in the back of her eyes as the little boy nodded wisely and laid the flowers on the hands of the stone effigy in the chancel.

  'She's like Granny, isn't she? She's even got a scarf thing around her head. What does it say here?'

  'It tells us who she was. Matilda, sixth baroness of Saxon-bury. She lived in the Manor a long time ago.'

  'Is Soniver a baroness now? Are you a baron?'

  'No,' said Dane, his eyes on Jade, who was furiously pushing foxgloves into place.

  'Can I go and look at the graves outside?' The little boy was tugging at Dane's sleeve.

  'Of course. Stay in the churchyard, though. I'll be out in a moment.'

  There was a long pause. Jade moved on to another window, wishing Dane didn't have the capacity to be so darned nice. It was an awful combination with wicked sensuality.

  'Hello, Jade.'

  'Hello.'

  'You look well.'

  'Me?' She forced a lively expression to her face and turned towards him. 'I feel fantastic' Her eyes travelled up and down his plain black suit. 'My goodness,' she gabbled, trying to say something to take her mind off the hungry, brooding way he was looking at her. 'You'll have to get a new wardrobe if you're coming to live down here. Aren't you hot in that?'

  'I've just been to a funeral,' he said quietly. 'The woman who bid for me at the auction. I'm looking after her grandson for the day till his mother is over it all. Any more gibes? Do you want to jump to any more conclusions?'

  'Oh, God, I'm sorry!' she said contritely, her shoulders slumping. 'I have an awfully big mouth.'

  'Yes,' he agreed, staring at it and confusing Jade even more.

  'I really am sorry,' she repeated. 'She looked as if she was a kind lady.'

  'She was a good friend.'

  Dane's f
ingers idly travelled over the carved draperies of Matilda's effigy while Jade struggled to accept the fact that he counted an ordinary-looking granny as one of his friends. It didn't fit with her impression of him at all.

  'I don't suppose you know anyone who could be my cook/housekeeper in her place, do you?' asked Dane. 'I'd prefer someone who lived in the village and came in on a daily basis. How about you?'

  'Me?' she said faintly. 'No, thank you. I have no wish to be your servant.'

  He scowled. 'It's a job, not a boot-licking exercise.'

  Jade frowned. Why did he make her want to be rude all the time? She considered for a moment, trying to atone.

  'Mrs Love might do it, she only works in the post office two days a week. Now Billy is getting older she has more time to herself—and she enjoys cooking.'

  'Thank you. I'll ask her. I saw Polly in your front garden and we stopped to say hello. She seems to have recovered well.'

  'Yes; apart from a slight limp if she has a very long walk, she's fine. I was grateful to you that day,' she said impulsively. 'I'm not sure how I would have coped without you.'

  'I told you, I have a knight-and-damsel fixation. Not many dragons left now, so I have to make do with smaller problems. Still, there are compensations.'

  She swallowed to disperse the dry feeling in her throat as his eyes softened. 'Compensations?' she asked, knowing she should have taken no notice of his obviously pointed remark.

  'Absolutely. I don't get my eyebrows singed any longer,' he said, grinning.

  Jade laughed in relief. 'You're determined not to be thanked properly, aren't you?' she said shrewdly. 'But, nevertheless, Polly and I appreciate what you did.'

  'So I'm not all bad?'

  'Not all,' she said grudgingly.

  'Well, we have taken one giant step forwards, Jade,' he said, quiet and serious. 'I think I'd better see where the lad is. He loved his granny very much, and he might be crying and in need of a comforting arm.'

  Dane was rather good at that, thought Jade wistfully.

  'Poor little kiddie. He was so sweet about his flowers, wasn't he?' she said mistily, her mind dwelling on the way Dane had handled the boy's concern about the value of his small offering.

  'I don't think I've met any woman who looks so untamed on the outside and is utterly tender-hearted on the inside,' he murmured.

  Jade's heart lurched crazily. 'You obviously don't move in the right circles,' she said tartly, to cover her confusion.

  'Maybe. No signs of total surrender to my charms, yet?' he asked lightly.

  She smiled coolly. 'Last time I looked, hell was still firing on all cylinders.'

  'I know,' he said quietly. 'I was there, too.'

  Jade watched his retreating back thoughtfully. Dane King was an enigma. Sometimes he epitomised everything in a man that she despised. Sometimes he was too warm and human for her own good. And sometimes, like just now, he let her glimpse a side of him that gave another dimension to his complex character. What hell could a man as successful as Dane King have experienced? He had everything he wanted.

  For two weeks, he had commuted to London, leaving at seven, just at the time that Jade walked Polly to the church green. Mrs Love was full of the fact that Soniver King had not yet taken up residence, and that they weren't intending to share the master bedroom. Apparently Soniver had been installed in the big bedroom which Jade and Sebastian had used as a guest-room, across the corridor.

  Mrs Love was scandalised at the way modern couples carried on, but her admiration for Dane overcame her doubts about his marital arrangements. Jade secretly thought that Dane and Soniver had separate rooms because it was easier to cheat on each other that way. She had become very cynical about life in the fast lane, after meeting Sebastian's friends.

  Then her worst fears were realised. One Friday night, she was walking back to Rose Cottage after bell-ringing practice. She always enjoyed the hour she spent hauling on the thick bellropes with Charlie and the farmer's two sons, listening to the glorious peal of bells ringing out across the still evening air.

  The stillness was shattered rudely when the first of a number of expensive-looking cars swept past her and drove into the manor. A cold memory balled in her stomach. It was starting, then, she thought dully. The parties, the cruel infidelities…

  Jade pretended not to hear the admiring comments thrown at her from the open-topped sports cars. These people were beneath contempt. She was just unlatching her front gate when a breathlessly husky voice accosted her.

  'Hello! You're Jade, aren't you? I'm Soniver King.'

  Jade turned reluctantly, and took the slender hand.

  'Dane's terribly reticent about you. I keep pumping him, but he gets aerated and snaps nastily. That's highly significant,' bubbled Soniver.

  'Really?' Jade eyed the stunning cream trouser suit and delicate green camisole top, and wished she was wearing something more fetching than faded jeans and an old gingham shirt.

  'Absolutely,' grinned Soniver. 'So I'm naturally fascinated. Are you doing anything right at this moment?'

  'No…' Darn it! Why did she tell the truth?

  'Good! Hop in, we're having an impromptu party. I told Dane it was about time he invited some people and he said over his dead body and I said how about a little barbecue and he said very well.'

  Soniver beamed at Jade after the enthusiastic words, and despite herself Jade had to smile. She could see that Dane didn't have everything his way with such a bombastic wife!

  'No, thank you, I—'

  'You must! Heavens, we have to invite you, you're our nearest neighbour. I hope we'll be good friends, Jade.'

  Perplexed that she felt immensely drawn to Soniver, Jade frowned. 'I have to feed my dog, and then…'

  'Oh right, I'll wait,' said Soniver happily.

  'I'm afraid you don't understand,' said Jade sharply, seeing that she'd have to make matters clear. 'I don't want to get involved. I don't want to see the inside of Saxonbury Manor again, ever. Nor do I want to enter its grounds.'

  She didn't add that she had no wish to see Dane King lording it in her old home, nor what chic London style had done to the interior. Mrs Love had said it was very posh, but she had spared her feelings and not gone into lengthy descriptions. Jade gave a brief nod at the astonished Soniver and hurried into the cottage.

  Feeling shaky, she fed Polly and prepared some supper for herself, staying indoors so that she wouldn't hear any noise from next door. But it was too lovely an evening, and she felt resentful that she was being forced to spend it indoors. This sort of thing would happen often; she might as well get used to it and not let it spoil her life.

  So she took her notepad and books outside, intending to sit on her lawn and do a little more research while Polly lolled heavily on her bare feet.

  When her dog rose, her tail wagging madly, Jade turned expecting to see one of the villagers, calling in for some eggs or honey. Instead, Dane was standing by her well. If he'd come to persuade her to attend his wretched barbecue, he had another think coming, she thought irritably. Wild horses wouldn't drag her to a party at the manor.

  'I—I came to apologise for Soniver,' he said warily.

  'Does she know that?'

  'Of course.'

  He came to sit a little way from her on the grass. Polly clambered all over him. Jade noted that he looked quite different in a tatty blue T-shirt and jeans in a worse state of repair than hers.

  He saw her glance and explained, 'My wood-chopping outfit. About Soniver…'

  'I'm sorry, it was my fault,' she said, not wanting to hear him talk of his wife. 'But she was very insistent that I should come to your darn barbecue, and I had to tell her eventually why I didn't want to go.'

  'No, it was my fault, which is why I'm apologising. I omitted to tell her you weren't ecstatic about my ownership of Saxonbury. At the auction she thought you recognised my name and were overcome with astonishment at my fame,' he said with a wry twist to his mouth. 'She's a little biased
in my direction, you understand.'

  'How dutiful.'

  'Er… yes. Then she was immersed in admiring villagers and didn't surface for ages. She's a bit vague and she missed the undercurrent of hostility completely. I've now explained.'

  'I see. Thank you.' Jade picked up her book pointedly.

  'She thinks you can be won over, though,' he said quietly.

  'Well, she doesn't know me very well, does she?' said Jade in a kindly tone.

  'There's no reason why we should remain enemies.'

  'When I dislike someone, it takes a great deal to make me change my opinion,' she said coldly.

  'But you don't dislike me, Jade.' Dane's eyes melted into hers and she gulped.

  'You just can't accept that any woman could ever find you selfish, shallow and worthless,' she grated. 'You arrogant man!'

  He leaned towards her and she moved back in alarm.

  'You're afraid of me,' he said softly. 'Afraid of my kisses.'

  Terrified, she thought! 'I certainly am not!' she cried hotly.

  'Prove it.'

  She regarded him in scorn. 'I'm not falling for that one,' she said. 'Go away. Can't you see I'm trying to work?'

  'I'm trying to work out an amicable arrangement between us,' he coaxed. 'Soniver wanted to bring over some hot dogs and a bucket of flowers as an apology. She never does things by halves. But I thought she might make matters worse, whereas I—'

  'Whereas you have considerable expertise in handling women,' she snapped.

  'You're very keen on finishing my sentences, and making sure that I never forget that remark,' he said ruefully.

  'It was an extremely unpleasant remark to make,' she observed, intently studying the page in front of her and seeing nothing.

  Dane sighed. 'I wish I could get through your antagonism. I wish I could loosen you up.'

  Jade felt the fierce sensation of an electrifying charge pulsating from him. Unwillingly, she looked up from her book and trembled at the flame in his eyes and the predatory expression on his face. And his wife was only a few hundred yards away.

  'My God!' she cried in disgust. 'The more I see you, the less I like you! Go back to your guests, Mr King. I'm sure you'll find willing women among them. I'm not one, that's for sure!'